Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, the Tettigoniidae are the only extant (living) family in the superfamily Tettigonioidea.
Orthoptera is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grasshoppers, locusts, and close relatives; and Ensifera – crickets and close relatives.
Ensifera is a suborder of insects that includes the various types of crickets and their allies including: true crickets, camel crickets, bush crickets or katydids, grigs, weta and Cooloola monsters. This and the suborder Caelifera make up the order Orthoptera. Ensifera is believed to be a more ancient group than Caelifera, with its origins in the Carboniferous period, the split having occurred at the end of the Permian period. Unlike the Caelifera, the Ensifera contain numerous members that are partially carnivorous, feeding on other insects, as well as plants.
Roesel's bush-cricket, Roeseliana roeselii is a European bush-cricket, named after August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, a German entomologist.
Gryllus campestris, the European field cricket or simply the field cricket in the British Isles, is the type species of crickets in its genus and tribe Gryllini. These flightless dark colored insects are comparatively large; the males range from 19 to 23 mm and the females from 17 to 22 mm.
The speckled bush-cricket is a flightless species of bush-cricket belonging to the family Tettigoniidae. The species was originally described as Locusta punctatissima in 1792.
Orthopteroids are insects which historically would have been included in the order Orthoptera and now may be placed in the Polyneoptera. When Carl Linnaeus started applying binomial names to animals in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758, there were few animals included in the scheme, and consequently few groups. As more and more new species were discovered and differences recognised, the original groups proposed by Linnaeus were split up.
Saga hellenica is a large species of bush cricket or katydid in the family Tettigoniidae. It is endemic to the Balkans, living in Albania, North Macedonia, Greece and in the past also in western Bulgaria, where it occurred on shrubs and more rarely in the grass in open stony terrains and light xerophytic forests.
Nsenene is the Luganda name for Ruspolia differens: a bush cricket in the tribe Copiphorini of the 'cone-head' subfamily. It is often confused with the closely related Ruspolia nitidula.
Eugaster spinulosa, a species of bush-cricket from Morocco.
Tettigonia is the type genus of bush crickets belonging to the subfamily Tettigoniinae. The scientific name Tettigonia is onomatopoeic and derives from the Greek τεττιξ, meaning cicada.
Conocephalus fuscus, the long-winged conehead, is a member of the family Tettigoniidae, the bush-crickets and is distributed through much of Europe and temperate Asia. This bush-cricket is native to the British Isles where it may confused with the short-winged conehead. These two species are phenotypically similar; however, the distinguishing factor between the two is the fully developed set of wings the long-winged conehead possesses that allows for flight. In the short-winged coneheads the hind wings are shorter than the abdomen, causing the wings to be vestigial and the species is incapable of flight. For this reason it is hard to discriminate between the two species during the early stages of their life cycle before the wings have fully developed. The colouration of the conehead is typically a grass green with a distinctive brown stripe down its back, though there are some brown phenotypes.
Aularches miliaris is a grasshopper species of the monotypic genus Aularches, belonging to the family Pyrgomorphidae. A native of South and Southeast Asia, the bright warning colours of this fairly large grasshopper keep away predators and their defense when disturbed includes the ejection of a toxic foam.
Decticus is the "wart-biter" genus of bush-crickets in the subfamily Tettigoniinae; it is the sole genus in the monotypic tribe DecticiniHerman, 1874.
Ruspolia nitidula, the Large Conehead, is a species belonging to the subfamily Conocephalinae of the family Tettigoniidae. It is found throughout Europe, Africa, and the Palearctic part of Asia. A vernacular name that has been used is "cone-headed grasshopper", although it is not a grasshopper, but rather a bush cricket.
Scudderia furcata is a species in the family Tettigoniidae ("katydids"), in the order Orthoptera. A common name for Scudderia furcata is fork-tailed bush katydid. The distribution range of Scudderia furcata includes Middle America and North America. The nymphs of this species can be pests of citrus fruit.
Ephippiger terrestris, common name Alpine saddle-backed bush-cricket, is a bush cricket species belonging to the family Tettigoniidae, subfamily Bradyporinae.
Karim Vahed FRES is a British entomologist. He is a professor of entomology and England manager at invertebrate conservation charity Buglife, and is an expert in crickets and bushcrickets (katydids).
